For minimum-wage workers, the huge disparity between housing wage and housing costs makes finding rental housing an almost impossible feat
Rental housing can be impossible to afford for both the average worker and millions of low-wage workers, as there is a huge disparity between housing costs and housing wage.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s (NLIHC) “Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing” report, on average, a full-time worker in the country must earn $21.21 per hour to attain a modest two-bedroom apartment and $17.14 per hour for a one-bedroom apartment.
A full-time, minimum wage renter would need almost three full-time jobs just to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment. That means for a worker earning $7.25 per hour (federal minimum wage), he or she must work 117 hours per week for 52 weeks of the year. A minimum-wage worker would have to hold 2.4 full-time jobs (94.5 hours per week) for a one-bedroom apartment.
"Out of Reach 2017 shows why millions of low-income renters are struggling to afford their homes,” said Diane Yentel, NLIHC president and CEO. “We have the resources to solve the affordable housing crisis in America by rebalancing federal housing expenditures to serve our country’s most vulnerable households. We lack only the political will to do so.”
The disparity, according to NLIHC, is due to a shortage of 7.4 million affordable and available rental homes nationwide for extremely low-income households.
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